{"id":88369,"date":"2018-07-10T09:51:34","date_gmt":"2018-07-10T07:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=88369"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:23:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:23:02","slug":"hanah-lost-a-close-friend-to-breast-cancer-while-she-was-doing-research-into-breast-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2018\/07\/10\/hanah-lost-a-close-friend-to-breast-cancer-while-she-was-doing-research-into-breast-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"H\u00e1nah lost a close friend to breast cancer while she was doing research into breast cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can people actually deal with cancer treatment? Isn\u2019t it physically or mentally too stressful for them? This was the theme of H\u00e1nah Rier’s PhD research The Prognostic Impact of Trastuzumab Resistance and Body Composition: Parameters in Metastatic Breast Cancer. During her research, she lost a close friend to the type of breast cancer she was researching.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLevien Willsemse<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

You\u2019re at a birthday party; how would you describe your research and your findings?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI usually tell people that I do research with cancer patients. If they\u2019re still interested, I explain that I look for factors that can improve the treatment and results. It often has an impact on my family and friends. They know that their cousin is a doctor, but they often don\u2019t realise that I work with cancer patients. But I prefer not to talk about cancer treatments at parties. I leave out complicated details about muscle tissue anyway, but it\u2019s still my work and I\u2019d rather not talk about it in my free time.\u201d<\/p>\n

How will your thesis make the world a better place?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the key questions of my research was: can a patient handle the treatment physically and mentally? With these insights, we can help patients bear the treatments better. The treatment often has a significant impact on their fitness. For example, people often get tired. As doctors, we can also use the research results to gain more understanding for our patients. People said that they wanted to be seen more as people and not just as patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

What was your lowest point in recent years?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cDuring my research, a close friend died from the consequences of the type of breast cancer from my second chapter. I was writing it at the time. My friend was slightly older and actually a mother figure to me; we were very close.\u00a0I was numb just before and after she died. I stopped work for a while, but it\u2019s only later that you fall into a sort of black hole.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA year after her death, I found myself unable to concentrate for a while; my research wasn\u2019t going well. But I had to continue and fortunately I had some real motivation: the money for this research was only available for a certain amount of time. Eventually I completed the research within four years.\u201d<\/p>\n

What was the first thing you did when the thesis was finished?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, is something like that ever finished? It\u2019s such a long process. At first, I sometimes had the sense of: this battle has been won. It will be finished. It\u2019s just a matter of time.<\/em> I can still remember the moment when my last article was accepted. I was already working in the clinic and had to be there early to extract some bone marrow. When I got to the hospital, I first opened my emails and that\u2019s when I saw it had been accepted. I immediately started to cry. The work was finished and a month later it was at the printer\u2019s. Then I planned a meal with friends, because that had become a tradition to keep up our morale. After someone had published an article, we went out for a meal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cover.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe cover was designed by Chester Gibs, a friend. I told him about the research, about how patients experience the treatments. There\u2019s a woman on the cover. She has two breasts, but one is coloured red. You can see a heart in it, but also a sick breast. She has half a face, because many people feel less of a woman or even less human after a mastectomy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very pleased with the cover. The research is so scientific, contains so much data. I wanted something subjective on the cover, because the research is about more than just science.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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